Decision jeopardizes WAILUKU >> A Maui Board of Ethics advisory opinion has thrown a proposed Makena project with 1,100 new residences into political limbo.
Maui project
An ethics board says a councilman
should excuse himself
from voting on the issueBy Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.comThe board issued an interim opinion yesterday, saying Maui Councilman Michael Molina should excuse himself from voting on the project because he is a beneficiary of a trust that owns land in Makena.
Without Molina's vote, Council supporters had only four of the five votes necessary to rezone the project on first reading yesterday. The issue was referred back to the Council's Land Use Committee.
Molina said the board's decision went against the advice of the Maui Corporation Counsel's office allowing him to vote on the Makena issue.
Molina said the Molina Family Trust, formed in the 1970s by his late parents, has about half of its 12.8 acres in Makena in conservation, and none of the beneficiaries are receiving income from it.
Molina said that the project was a mile away, and under the criteria used by the board, other Council members could find themselves disqualified in the future.
The first-term councilman said he asked for an advisory opinion from the board, after he mentioned his family's trust on a radio talk program in January and the ethics board chairman recommended a review of it.
Makena Resort General Manager Roy Figueiroa said he was confident about the merits of the project and hoped to persuade other Council members to support it.
Kula resident Dick Mayer said that when he served on the Maui Planning Commission in the early 1970s, the developer had a plan to build employee housing in neighboring Wailea, but the plan was never implemented.
Mayer said one of the reasons for traffic congestion is because employees have to commute from elsewhere.
The voting balance could shift with the return of Council Chairman Patrick Kawano, who has been recuperating from foot surgery.